The Small Streamer Hunger Games

Chapter Two: The Journey

The building they were being held in was cold and dark, it was one of the only surviving buildings from the original District 8, and you could tell. The souls of the failed rebels could be felt screeching through planes of reality in this prison cell. Every minute felt like a day. It was torture. Max and Ana sat there with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the thoughts in their heads. This time was allotted for the people that loved them to come say their goodbyes. Max sat in empty suspense waiting for any recognisable face to walk through the door. After a short while it creeped open with a scratching noise along the floor. 

"You two, get up. It's time to go." said a man in Peacekeeper uniform.

Nobody came.

Ana uses his fists to hoist himself up, Max stays sat, partially reluctant to comply and partially scared to move.

"C'mon man, dying before we even get in there is a bad look." Ana spouts in an attempt to lighten the mood, the joke lands like a truck.

Max continues to stay perfectly still. Ana worriedly looks towards the Peacekeeper and back to Max, hoping for a single sign of compliance from him. The man in white clearly starts to lose patience behind the mask.

"Please Max, of all times to do this now isn't it."

The Peacekeeper steps forward and raises his gun barrel at Max's forehead, expecting a reaction, but there's nothing.

"NO! LOOK, we don't have to do this please I'm sure he'll move just let me talk to him please." Ana pleads. The man listens and steps back, with his weapon still raised.

"Maxwell listen to me, I can't go in there without you, and I can't leave this room without you. You still have a fighting chance as long as you're alive so please for the love of GOD get up."

Without the chance to get through to him, Ana gets brushed aside by the Peacekeeper as he raises the butt of his gun, and swiftly follows through Max's head with the weapon, powerful enough to knock him out, but leave no lasting damage. The perfectly calculated hit. The last noise Max heard was a scream of defiance from his brother, and he was out.

As Max regains consciousness, he felt the slight g-force hit his body in a wave. The bright overhead lights of the train pierce his eyes as he slowly opens them. His head throbbing, and his chest sending streaks of pain upwards towards his brain. After noticing Max's efforts to wake up, Ana rushes to hit the light switch in an attempt to make his recovery as easy as possible.

"Don't rush yourself, he hits hard" Ana says whilst clutching an ice pack to his right cheekbone.

"Jesus Christ, what happened?!" Max exclaims through his struggle.

"Funnily enough, smacking people inclines them to smack the fuck back" Ana jokes, "I'll be fine, how are you feeling?"

Ignoring the question and breaking through the visual blur, Max makes out a third figure sitting at the table with them. A machine in the shape of a human, threatening yet still familiar. Two horns protruded from the top of its 'head' and it bared a mask with green lights built into it.

"Hi. I'm Joker." it said with a robotic voice, somehow still holding human vocal inflections. A symbol glows on its mask. A nice backwards smiley face. "I have been assigned as your Mentor, I am here to help in any way I can"

Max, being too tired to ask questions, laid back and continued staring at the ceiling lights. Ana nods at Joker to leave them be, to which the robot tilts his head and displays a '?' on his mask. A quick shooing motion from Ana sent the machine on its way.

"You know, if it came to it I would ABSOLUTELY destroy you." Ana spouts.

Max lets out a giggle, "I would beat you up so easily and you know it-"

"The only thing you can beat me at is iMessage Cup Pong don't even try me."

"If I wasn't in pain right now I would have hit you." Max retaliates jokingly

"Sure you would you small, small man" 

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMALL MOTHERFUCKER?" 

"WELL LET'S SAY I UH, PUT YOU IN A MEAT GRINDER, AND THE ONLY THING THAT COMES OUT IS YOUR EYEBA-"

Ana is stopped abruptly as Joker steps back into the carriage after hearing the commotion, looking ready to break up a fight. The robot looks over and sees nothing more than two kids being kids, even in the face of death. The rolling fields and lakes on the other side of the windows slowly fade to a dystopian city. Disgustingly clean walls, the smell of bleach in the air. Even the tunnels felt regal. They had heard of this part, both Ana and Max stood up in expectation of hundreds of people to be watching their entry to the Capitol through the train window. But nobody came. It was empty. It seemed everyone in the Capitol had the same view, this was less of a game and more of a public execution. No one wanted anyone out alive. Surely the President wasn't happy about the low turnout, after all the Capitol needs to profit off of this. The carriage door slid open and two Peacekeepers marched in, one with a scratch mark on their helmet, and the other as pristine as ever. Without saying a word, both of the tributes snapped to look at them and followed them back out of the carriage like mind controlled beasts.

The moment the train door opened, a sharp cold sting hit every nerve of the two, the Peacekeepers completely unaffected due to their armour. Not cold enough for snow, but still uncomfortable. Ana stepped down with a little nudge whilst Max was shoved onto the icy platform by the battle scarred officer. Responding with a quick lunge at the Peacekeeper, Ana found himself at the end of a gun barrel.

"Not this time." whispered the faceless white figure.

Ana immediately stood down and continued following along like a trained dog. Max stood back up with a quick pull at his collar, already dazed enough from the initial thump by the same man, and followed suit with his brother.